This is an application for a K23 award for Dr. Brent Kinder, an Assistant Professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Cincinnati, who is establishing himself as a young investigator in patient-oriented clinical research of interstitial lung diseases (ILD). This K23 award will provide Dr. Kinder with the support necessary to accomplish the following goals: (1) to become expert in clinical and epidemiologic research on interstitial lung disease;(2) to establish the first prospective cohort of carefully defined cases of Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease (UCTD)-associated ILD;(3) to implement advanced biostatistical methods to analyze the risk factors for progression of UCTD-ILD;(4) to examine the influence of derangement in bronchoalveolar lavage and serum surfactant proteins on disease progression;and (5) to develop an independent clinical research career. To achieve these goals, Dr. Kinder has assembled a mentoring team comprised of his sponsor and primary mentor, Dr. Francis X. McCormack, Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at the University of Cincinnati, who conducts clinical and basic investigation in diffuse parenchymal lung disease, and a co-mentor, Dr. Talmadge E. King, Jr., Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who is an internationally recognized leader in the clinical investigation of interstitial lung disease. The development of ILD is now the leading cause of death in several connective tissue diseases. Dr. Kinder will leverage the resources of the University of Cincinnati ILD Center and the coordinating center for the NHLBI-sponsored Rare Lung Disease Consortium to establish a prospective, longitudinal study of carefully defined cases of UCTD-associated ILD using clinical, radiological, physiological, biochemical, and morphological parameters (Aim 1;), to define the clinical risk factors for disease progression and rate of evolution to a defined CTD by American College of Rheumatology criteria in patients with ILD and UCTD (Aim 2;), and to define the association of serum and bronchoalveolar lavage surfactant proteins A and D with disease course of ILD in UCTD (Aim 3). This research will provide Dr. Kinder with the necessary skills and preliminary data to design a prospective, multi-center, molecular epidemiologic study of UCTD-ILD that will be proposed in an R01 grant application before the end of the K award. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Improving our understanding of the disease course and outcome of the development of ILD in the setting of UCTD is critical to developing an evidence-base on which to design futures studies of this disease that disproportionately impacts young women during their peak working years. (End of Abstract)